fishnkamp

The Fuego is a new reel Daiwa brought out. It uses much of the Tatula CT parts, but has the same bearing count as the older Exceler reels. In fact that is why they replaced the Exceler, as there are more versions of the Tatula and Tatula CTs they wanted to discontinue carrying a reel that shared no parts like the Exceler. At least that is how it looks. The Exceler had the old fixed drum Magforce brake system instead of the much better MagForce Z. SO it should be a nice upgrade. I fish an Exceler and a bunch of Tatula Type Rs and Tatula CTs. You will enjoy fishing that reel. I would definitely get a Fuego and for a rod look at a Berkley Lightning Shock Rod, they run $50. I fish several 6'6 medium rods for bass and stripers. They have both landed some big blue cats and held up fine. Another option is to go to Dicks Sporting Goods. Look at a Quantum Escalade 7 foot MH rod. They usually run $100 but have been on sale for $49. It is no $300 rod but it fishes very well. It is a IM8 rod. I use mine to fish texas rigs, carolina rigs and jigs.

I would consider starting with a decent spinning rod and reel first. SInce you can use the Bantam and Bionix that is how I would go. A few good options would be a Pflueger President , President XT or even a Supreme spinning reel. That would cost $60, $80, or $100 depending. For the last 20 years my wife has chosen to fish with either a President in 30 or 35 size ( she has 4 of them) or a 35 Supreme. They have help up against some big fish like several 7 pound smallies, a 10 pound cat and many big stripers up to 20 inches. There are tons of more expensive reels but we trust these. I use several myself as well. A good strategy is to get a 6'6 to 7 foot medium spinning rod. It will handle most finesse baits and the basics of bass fishing. These lures include grubs, tubes, lightly weighted worms and even small crankbaits and minnow baits like 4 inch Rapalas and Pop Rs etc. Take a good look at a Dobyns Fury FR 703SF. This is a rod that would cost $110 and fish like a $200 rod. Another good option would be a Powell Inferno 6103MEF. This rod runs $99. This would let you get one very serious weapon to fish all of the baits that baitcasters do not cast easily. You could temporarily use the Bantam/ Bionix combo until you are ready to get an upgrade to that setup. I would look at a 7 foot MH/fast action rod as my next combo. A rod like the Powell Max 683CEF is a very nice option, so would a rod like a Falcon Bucoo TrapCaster. A Dobyns Fury FR 734C would also give you a good option here as well. Match that up with Daiwa Tatula CT or Fuego add some good line and go catch fish.

The Sierras are really nice rods. With the Dobyns lineups each time you go up in the lineup the rods use a little better, lighter, more sensitive graphite blank and better grips, reel seats and guides. To be honest the fishability difference between the Sierra rod and the Champion rod is not that much. The champ is built with nicer components, and the graphite is a bit faster, but the sensitivity is close to the same. So going with the Fury instead of the Sierra will not make a huge difference. As for none located near you where do you live? II understand wanting to "feel it" first. I did not mean to say you "must" buy 2 more rods. I was trying to show you what rod types do work what types of baits. You may find your that you never need to fish a certain lure type because the waters you fish do not call for them. Let me explain, if you crawl in my rod box you will find 12 baitcasters and 3 spinning outfits. My wife and I have fished for bass for over 40 years and until two years ago I NEVER threw a frog! The lakes and rivers I fished had no heavy vegetation, no lily pads, no big emergent grass beds so there was no reason to own a specific rod to throw frogs, on. Now I live 5 minutes from The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. If you ever see any videos of the Upper Bay and Susquehanna Flats then you will see why one of my wife's 6 spinning rod is a special Dobyns Sierra rod that is designed to fish frogs.. One of my Dobyns Champion series rods is a frog rod. So you can see how I was identifying rods that fit typical needs and only you can decide which needs you should fill. The design of a typical crankbait, spinnerbait, rattle trap rod is very different than the design of the ML finesse bait rod. When it comes to a crankbait rod you will find many more options in baitcasting than in spinning rods. The Berkley is a favorite of mine because it is rather inexpensive and fishes really well for this purpose. It is easy to find at many Walmarts Bass Pro Cabelas and even some Dicks Sporting Goods. You would be looking for a rod rated around 6'6" to 7" medium power moderate action. This means when you strike on a fish there is a bit of delay built in so the fish actually takes the bait and you do not pull it away from him and it has some give to protect the treble hooks from pulling out. As for another option on the ml rod Check out a Powell Inferno 702MLEF, or the Fenwich Elite Tech 6'10 ml.

Hey Crusty Mono The Powell rods are terrific. We have a dealer nearby that stocks all of the Powells, and the Dobyns rods. Too bad you don't live closer. For the money both are great rods and interestingly Gary Dobyns designed most of the Powells and his line. Keith and Gary are good friend. You will like the feel of that 712ML Powell. I would also suggest a Dobyns Fury FR 703SF. Dobyns fishes a half step lighter than rated, so that rod will do everything you want to do as well. They run $110, I also disagree with the claim these rod feeling heavy. It is important to match the rod with a reel of the correct weight. For example I run some Pflueger President spinning reels. Depending on my rod balance I will run either a 30 or 35 size reel. I like my spinning outfit to balance right at the front of the reel seat with the reel installed and the spool full of line. Most cases I am running Berkley FireLine on my spinning gear. By balancing at this point the total weight of the combo is less noticeable, but a combo that is too tip heavy will wear on you as you fish with it all day.

I would look at it this way. All Veritas rods run a bit stiffer than they are rated. I have owned several Veritas baitcasting rods and this was definitely the case. I am not saying anything bad here, just a statement of reality. So since you have fished with this rod, then think about what type baits does that rod fish best. The rod is rated for baits weighing from 1/8 to 1/2 ounce. Is the rod better for baits that weigh closer to the 1/4 to 1/2 and even to 5/8 of an ounce? I bet it is a better rod for throwing bottom contact baits like grubs, jigs, heavier texas rigs ( like 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 ounce) and even lighter carolina rigs ( like 1/2 and 5/8 ounce ones). Do yourself a favor tie on a worm with a 3/4 ounce worm weight and toss it in your favorite pond. See if it overpowers the rod. If I am right it will handle it fine. If that is all true, then I would consider looking at a much different rod for my next rod. I would eventually add both of the next two rods in your arsenal. Deciding which one to purchase first is a choice only you can make and it should be determined by the water you fish and the baits you wish to throw most often. One rod I would add is a rod that can handle reaction baits well, like crankbaits, squarebills, spinnerbaits and even chatterbaits. These baits require a rod that is more moderate or softer tipped than your current Veritas. This rod would also fish like a Keitech of reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper. I throw these baits all over the country and they flat out catch fish. Toss them on a belly weighted swimbait hook and look out. My other rod would be a 6'9 to 7'3" medium light rod. This rod will work best throwing really light baits like Ned rigs, drop shots, lightweight grubs and texas rigs ( like ones fished with 1/16 to 1/4 ounce weights), Sencos, floating weightless worms, shakeyhead worms etc. A good crankbait rod can cost as little as $50 or well over $300. Look for a Berkley Lightning Shock rod in a 6'6" medium. This rod can handle most of your needs and it normally costs $49. If you go to WalMart you may find one in stock. Some members here have had them scanned and they came up priced to sell for as low as $10. They were marked as $49. For the money that spinning rod does a great job. My wife fishes all of her crankbaits, rattle traps, and spinnerbaits, Skinny Dippers and more on it. She has it matched up with a Pflueger President 6935 and it balances well. You can go with a 30 but I prefer the larger spool. We use 17 pound test Berkley Fireline braid and it works great. Now let's look at good options for the 6'9" to 7'3" ML rod. Here I would spend a little more money on this rod just to get a high quality, very sensitive rod. The baits we use on this rod are LIGHT and require FEEL so here are my best suggestions. I would look at a Dobyns Fury rod. Ironically Dobyns tends to run opposite to you Veritas, it tends to run a half step lighter than it is rated. So I would choose a Fury FR 703SF. It will meet your needs perfectly and if you fished one it will feel much more like a $200 rod than the actual cost which is $110. My friend Kris fishes with one of these for these exact baits and loves the entire Fury line. He purchased one and now owns 4 different models of them. Again match this rod up with a 35 series reel. That reel will perfectly balance the Fury rod.

You have one of the best rods they ever made!! I own a Powell Max 683CEF ( just the original Powell version) and you are totally correct it is an amazingly versatile rod. I decided to get one after doing some research and reading the Tackletour review on it. It is as sensitive and yet super strong. I fish for bass here on the Chesapeake Bay rivers but often run into big blue cats and stripers. It handles them fine. I use it primarily as my swim jig rod but love taking it with me on guided trips just for that versatility. Take a minute and go read the Tackletour review. It is a great read. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewpowell683cxfastpg2.html

I fish with 12 baitcasting rods, many of them are priced well over $150. Two of them are Berkley Lightning Shock rods. They are 6'6" Medium moderate action rods. They are rated on the rods as just medium. My main purpose for these two rods is fishing rattle traps for fall stripers. I need four different rattle traps, Red Eye Shads, XCalibur, and Cotton Cordells on the deck at one time. This allows me to quickly identify what action and sound they are responding to and also I can have a selection of different weight baits ready to adjust to both depth and tidal current changes quickly. I add these two rods to my Irod and Falcon rods and they hold their own very well. I would not hesitate to fish these rods for my main rattle trap, small to mid sized cranks and even spinnerbaits. As for being designed for braid I think i is more of a guide choice and hype than a rod design thing. Having said that they will work well with any line and I agree with some earlier posters for the money they work great. My wife fishes all spinning rods and she fishes with 1 Lightning Shock rod as well, it is rated as a 6'6" medium also, but it has the same moderate action so they both act the same.

To avoid much of the spinning reel hassles, I have gone to 14# Berkley FireLine and an 8 pound leader made of P Line CXX. I ALWAYS ALWAYS flip the bail by hand and as I do so I will lift the rod up slightly to tighten the line before I reel it.

You could consider changing to Winn Grips

Please do not think I am being rude. I am not. Try calling out to Lowe. I have spoken with their people several times. They have been very helpful in the past.

I am so glad to hear all went well. It is funny there are things I LOVED about my two fiberglass rocket ships, but I really catch as many fish out of my aluminum Lowe. It has travelled from MD to PA, NC, VA, TN and KY, Along the way it has allowed us to fish and enjoy ourselves. It is affordable to run and that is the most important thing right now. As for the plug, well ai have made that the first step to prepping the motor. I also have two spare plugs in two compartments just in case!. Enjoy the boat and thanks for doing the most important duty a father can do, spend quality time with your son! These memories last forever!

I did a major overhaul and mods to the trailer under my Polar Kraft stick steer aluminum bass boat. I first jacked the dolly wheel all the way down. I set to hd car jack stands and boards under the transom. I then jacked the trailer jack all the up causing the back of the boat to rest on the wood boards ( 2x6s ) and off the trailer in the read. I then cribbed up the boat just before the hull swings up in the front. Using more jack stands, boards and a floor jack I raised the boat up in the front and walked the trailer out while it was angled down in the rear. To put it back on jusat reverse the procedure. It work fine and never gave me a moments trouble.

Here are a couple of pics of my Polar Kraft 15.6 foot stick steer boat. This was a fun boat. I had 4 rod holders to troll for panfish or catfish, a good 12 volt trolling motor,an Anchor Mate, of course the 25 hp Merc, as well as plenty of room for two anglers and their gear. I had the box under the front seat custom made so the trolling motor battery was moved up front. In the rear was the battery that ran all of the electronics, lights , and started that Merc. I could run for weeks on the portable 6 gallon gas tank. In front of the throttle you will notice 3 colored objects. Those were colored buoys to mark spots. I had one fish finder and one fish finder/ gps. The gps had a transom mount transducer and the other was mounted on the trolling motor. It was a fun boat to fish out of.

There are some basic lures that have been suggested here and they are all techniques that fish extremely well on a 6'6 to 7 foot medium action spinning rod. Flukes have been suggested. Let me go farther and suggest you pick up some Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers (little dippers if you want to downsize due to being a pond) and rig them with either a weightless swimbait hook, or a lightly weighted swimbait hook. I use Gamakatsu brand and they work great. I fish these baits from shallow out to really deep water in big lakes, only then I use swimbait jigheads of 3/8 to 1/2. Keitech makes a good version of this swimbait as well. My wife will not go fishing if she does not have a Kalin 5 inch Lunker grub tied onto one of hr spinning rods. She has used three colors to fish from MD to PA, VA, NC, TN and KY. We go to Bass Pro and order some Bass Pro Shops Perfect Finesse Worm jigheads. I match the hook size to match the body of a worm or grub and I like 1/8 and 1/4 ounce versions. These make changing a body easy and fast and it allows the weight, hook and body not to separate so they can not get stuck on opposite sides of a limb or something. The Senco is a no brainer. Go do a little research on here and youtube to learn about these easy to fish baits. As for setup I use 14 pound Berkley FireLine original. It is equal to 6 pound test. You can tie direct or else use a double uni knot to attach a 4 foot leader made of P Line Halo or CXX in 8 pound test. I use that combo all over the country and in all types of water clarity. It flat works for me and my wife. We have landed bass up to 7 pounds, a 8 pound cat and plenty of big stripers on that setup.

The FR 704C should work fine. You could also go with the Fury FR 734C. That rod has a bit different taper and may be better. It is also one of their most versatile rods. The price is the same so the choice is yours. If you can handle the longer rod do it.

Then a Powell Inferno 702MLEF, a Dobyns Fury FR702SF or the Abu Garcia Ike finesse 6'10 ml would be perfect. Go watch his video about that rod on youtube,

As for line that is simple. I flip and pitch with 65 pound Power Pro Spectra braid tied straight to the lure.

I throw a bunch of traps from 1/4 to 1 ounce for bass and stripers. I prefer a 7' medium power moderate fast action rod. You want a rod that gives to protect the trebles from being torn or thrown out. During the fall striper runs into the creeks I have 4 rods on deck with Redeye Shads, Rattle Traps, Cotton Cordells and XCaliburs tied onto both P Line Floroclear in 10 pound test and Suffix 832 in 30 pound test. The line difference is just a matter of the two rods with braid were setup for that use specifically and the other two rods get used for most of my crankbait and squarebill work all season. Also the braid is nice when the occasional 20 pound blue cat comes and eats you trap. Then the real fight is on.

Lets look at this a bit differently. What size Sahara did you get? What type of fish do you wan to catch and what type and weight of lures do you intend to throw? Do you own a medium action spinning rod? The answers to these questions will help to advise you in the best direction. I always suggest the first and most useful rod to own is a 6'6 to 7' medium spinning rod for general bass fishing. A rod like that can handle a huge array of baits from grubs to texas rigs, small spinners like mepps, Sencos, and the list goes on. Now if the correct rod is chosen the actual weight of the rod can be very light. If you regularly fish smallies on smaller rivers and creeks and most of the lures you throw will be 1/16 to 3/8 ounce then I would certainly go lighter. If you already have a medium action rod than the ML is a great addition, simply because it will handle the lighter baits like drop shotting and Ned Rigs better. As for rods in your budget seriously consider a Powell Inferno 702MLEF and the 6103MEF. Also look at the Dobyns Fury FR702SF and the FR703SF. Dobyns runs a little lighter than most, so I think the 703SF would make you very happy. Another great series of rods to look at is the Abu Garcia Ike finesse series spinning rods. Go check out the 7 foot medium rod and his 6'10 med light rods. I fish rods from all of these companies and really like them.

I have a friend that runs a 20 foot Ranger all over the Potomac River including out near Point Lookout. He runs that thing all over the Upper Chesapeake Bay as well. Certainly that boat should handle as well as his boat. Much of his striper fishing, as well as mine when I owned my 20 foot fish and ski boat, was done around the route 301 bridge and below down towards Colonial Beach. I have never fished your rivers, nor boated them. I believe Bryan has, so if you would send me an e-mail at fishnkamp@comcast.net I will share his fishing website. Go ask him about the boat you are considering and the waters you intend to fish. He and his dad have had all kinds of boats including a Skeeter center console. Here is the style boat I had that fished like a bass boat but played like a runabout. I loved mine! I used it on the Potomac and Upper Bay, Lake Anna, Raystown Lake etc. We fished, tubed ands skied off it as well as just plain went riding in it. Often we used it as transport to the crab houses on the Potomac while camping at a campground on the Port Tobacco River. We kept a travel trailer there for years. That boat was great on the rivers as it did not draft anymore than the a standard bass boat. It was okay on the bay as well. It is still a carpeted boat, so if you intend to go catch big cats and such than the non carpeted boat is better. A simple hose down and the boat is cleaned up.

First that is a nice boat and believe me Robalo has a great reputation for building high quality boats. Tell me a little more, I see you have some small lakes near you. You also live close to the James River and plenty of tidal Chesapeake Bay waters. Is the tidal waters and the James your intended boating areas? I live om the Upper Chesapeake bay and that boat would be super up here. I am sure I could run pretty comfortably around my area. I live near Middle River, The Gunpowder river, Pooles Island and Hart Miller Island. I had a friend that ran a customized parker boat like that and he guided off it for stripers and bass. I think that boat will adapt well and fill several needs. Add striper fishing to your bas fishing and your freezer can also get filled. Your wife will probably enjoy a good striper fillet cooked on the grill. I run a typical aluminum bass boat and have to worry about water conditions, I have considered trading for something like that or a bigger deep v boat. The nice thing is the boat still can go shallow. Have you looked at this yet? http://www.boattest.com/review/robalo/3077_206-cayman

Manufacturers try to confuse us sometimes I believe. Anyway all of these toys are just tools in your tool box. Sometimes you have to search and play with a few to find what fits you and makes your fishing enjoyable. By the way I deeply want to thank you for your service and dedication to our great country. Despite all of the political noise out there, many of us still appreciate your sacrifices. I have some family members that have served and are serving. Some of them were jarheads and spent many a night bobbing around in some unknown body of water, waiting till someone is stupid enough to fire at them. My brother in law retired as an airplane mechanic and instructor from Paris Island. I have a niece that has spent two tours in terrible places, She is in intelligence, so you can imagine the wonderful places she has seen. She decided to join the reserves to fill out her career.

Since you own it save the braid as it is very usable for other purposes. Try an experiment first. Stop at Wal Mart and pick up some Stren 10 # Original Clear Blue mono. It runs around $8.00. It is a quality mono. It has good abrasion resistance and casts well. Spool your reel with it. Tie your lures on with either the Palomar or use a single uni knot. Now fish that setup. If it plays nice empty 1/2 of the mono off that reel and add your new flouro of choice. I never spool my reels with expensive braid or fluorocarbon line without first filling it halfway up with good mono as a backing. This does several good things. First a 300 yard spool of high quality braid or fluoro will fill my reel several times. This saves money! Next, the mono will give a nice smooth surface for the mainline to wrap over. Make sure you tie a good arbor knot so the line never slips. Also always install your line smoothly and under good tension. Third if you ever have that horrible moment that Bill Dance suggests "you might want to trade that one in" LOL, well all you have to do is cut back the mainline till you get to the backing. I always use a Berkley line Station. It is an older version, but for $20 bucks it makes spooling a reel a much easier task. Now once you have that done then try it out. If you still am not sure about your setup, lets meet. I have an Abu Garcia Ike rod designed for fishing jerkbaits. it is a special design with a very soft tip and a strong backbone. It also is made with a short handle so that you do not hit your own wrist with each jerk. If you are interested in playing with it I live near Middle River on the Bay. It is about a 45 minute drive up 95. Another benefit is on your way home you could detour over to Hunt Valley and drop in Anglers Express, iti our newest awesome tackle shop. If you want it they have it. They carry rods you will not find in almost any store in MD. These include Irod,Powell, Dobyns, Duckett and others. They stock a bunch of other brand lures that I can only find there as well, names like Spro, Lucky Craft, Robo Worms,Z Man, Reaction Innovation and tons more. I find it is a dangerous place to enter, as whatever I am looking for is usually in stock. Take a look at this video from Ike. I am not suggesting you have to run out and buy that rod, although it is a good one, but rather maybe the rod you are using is making it difficult to fish that technique. It may be suited better to fish cranks and traps than jerkbaits, Here is the link

First off manufacturers have no set standards between them. They do not care about that. Just look at the physical size of a Shimano 2500 and a 3000 sized Pflueger. Having said that I realize you are confused about the baitcasting reels. Let's stay within a single brand of reels like Daiwa. If we compare a Diawa Tatula 100 series reel it can handle 120 yards of 14# test line. A Lexa 300 can hold 190 of 14# or 120 yards of 20 #test. A Lexa 400 can hold 190 yards of 20# test. This runs as you expect it to. Each of these reels fills a different niche. If I were trolling for walleyes or fighting bigger saltwater fish than I would be interested in the Lexa 400 but for casting bass tackle the 200 series workd for me. My friend likes to use 100 series tatula and Exceler reels, but he throws his bigger crankbaits and rattle traps for stripers on a Tatula Type HD which gives him 30% more line capacity. This makes it easier to bomb long casts which help catch fish farther from the boat. Specifically what has you confused. these two reels holds essentially the same amount of line. The Lews BB1 Speed Spool holds 160 yards of 12 pound line and the other holds 150 yards of the same line. These are basically 100 series reels. A bb-2Z Speed Spool would be the reel with more capacity and be designed to handle the stress fishing heavier baits and heavier line. What you have to understand is when Lews or Daiwa design a reel to handle heavier line and a larger amount of it the gears, bearings, and drag system has to be made stronger to withstand a lot more abuse. Just consider how much more abuse a reel is subjected to if an angler is throwing a big swimbait that weighs over 5 ounces, compared to throwing say a heavy football head jig and trailer. That combo may weigh all of an ounce or ounce and a half. I hope this helps.

For me no. There are more modern reels that perform as well or better and cost less or around the same. There are many guys that believe that those wee the holy grail, just not me.